Yesterdays perfomance was typical of liverpool, and is one of the reasons i dont think they have what it takes to win the league. A club that was seriously challenging for the title would have taken 3 points.

Portsmouth away is no easy game for anyone. Check their home form in the premiership, it's pretty amazing for a mid-table side. A draw there is always an acceptable result.

Agreed. Its the performance that irks me. Rotating is all well and good if players start to tire...Benitez seems to jump the gun and essentially "fix what isnt broke". I suppose you cant expect to have much penetration playing 2 defensive center midfielders, 2 strikers who arent the fastest, and one wide midfielder on his weaker side.

It was frustrating, but he basically chose people that had played the least international football, with tomorrow's CL game in mind. I don't think the team selected was weak in any way, they just didn't perform. Our wide play in particular wasn't good enough, and we were uncharacteristically slack in defence.

Our wide play in particular wasn't good enough, and we were uncharacteristically slack in defence.

Our left side was a right footed full back and a right footed midfielder (who is not a winger any way) and our centre midfield had nobody willing to meet up with the attack, neither of our strikers looked like they could create anything either....the balance was all wrong for an away game at a tough ground and you could tell that by looking at the team sheet.

Our wide play in particular wasn't good enough, and we were uncharacteristically slack in defence.

Our left side was a right footed full back and a right footed midfielder (who is not a winger any way) and our centre midfield had nobody willing to meet up with the attack, neither of our strikers looked like they could create anything either....the balance was all wrong for an away game at a tough ground and you could tell that by looking at the team sheet.

Arbeloa has performed consistently well at left back. Benayoun is a wide player that likes to cut inside, and as such should be able to do a job playing on the left with a right foot. You talk about Sissoko not being able to link up, but he won several free-kicks in very dangerous positions around the Portsmouth area, and Alonso was uncharacteristically wasteful with them. I honestly think that was a team that should have won the game. It was just a matter of too many players not performing on the day. For someone that's been waiting a long time to get a league start, I thought Crouch in particular was awful.

You know what point i was making, the Chelsea related sarcasim is just clutching at straws. If Liverpool are to win the title this season, they aint going to walk it, so they really need to be picking up the 3 points as often as possible. Portsmouth is a hard away fixture no doubt, and i didint once say that Liverpool were "out of contention" because of the result. I was merley stating that winning such games, and not deciding to play a sub strengh team, will make winning the title a hell of a lot easier. Its very early days, obviously, but if you had of picked up the 3 points then you would of been sitting top of the table now, and you cant say thats a bad place to be.

Our wide play in particular wasn't good enough, and we were uncharacteristically slack in defence.

Our left side was a right footed full back and a right footed midfielder (who is not a winger any way) and our centre midfield had nobody willing to meet up with the attack, neither of our strikers looked like they could create anything either....the balance was all wrong for an away game at a tough ground and you could tell that by looking at the team sheet.

Arbeloa has performed consistently well at left back. Benayoun is a wide player that likes to cut inside, and as such should be able to do a job playing on the left with a right foot. You talk about Sissoko not being able to link up, but he won several free-kicks in very dangerous positions around the Portsmouth area, and Alonso was uncharacteristically wasteful with them. I honestly think that was a team that should have won the game. It was just a matter of too many players not performing on the day. For someone that's been waiting a long time to get a league start, I thought Crouch in particular was awful.

The service to crouch was abysmal. Benayoun cuts inside, thats a given....but when the player behind him is Arbeloa, you hav no width on that side...they are both good players, but neither provides any width.

At the start of the season, our side was praised for having more width than ever before in the last 10 years. Where was that on saturday??

Unfortunately, we need more pace in our team away from home....apart from pennant, that was woefully lacking on saturday.

I'm not going to make any rash declarations. A 0-0 away to Portsmouth at this stage of the season is an acceptable result as far as I'm concerned. The performance wasn't great, but I still maintain it was down to too many players not performing on the day and not the manager's team selection.

Writer, Sam Alolardyce...what a tosser, eh? Not sure why he's mouthing off about Benitez after losing to Derby.

I'm not going to make any rash declarations. A 0-0 away to Portsmouth at this stage of the season is an acceptable result as far as I'm concerned. The performance wasn't great, but I still maintain it was down to too many players not performing on the day and not the manager's team selection.

Writer, Sam Alolardyce...what a tosser, eh? Not sure why he's mouthing off about Benitez after losing to Derby.

You are right that too many players didnt perform, but i do believe Benitez is partly to blame for playing the wrong group of players.

Sam Allardyce, what an idiot this guy is. Go buy some more strikers you fat arse-chinned pork-smoker.